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Grease spill clogs afternoon travel

It was a slick and smelly Wednesday afternoon on the northbound access road of Interstate 35 after a truck hauling old cooking grease lost its load.

The spill occurred around exit 202 on the access road just north of Wonder World Drive. City of San Marcos communications chief Kristy Stark said police sent word about the spill at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“The IH-35 frontage road was closed in the 2200 block of IH-35 for approximately two hours,” Stark said. “Both the north to south turnaround and all lanes of the frontage road were closed.”

Assistant SMFD Chief Rick Rowell said the Fire Department was paged to the scene at about 1:10 p.m. and stayed on the scene until a little after 4 p.m. cleaning up the 200-300 gallons of used cooking grease.

The Texas Department of Transportation assisted the San Marcos Fire Department in cleanup. TxDOT spokesman Chris Bishop said fire department personnel spread out some absorbent material to clean up the grease, and TxDOT workers used sand and additional material on “spots where the spill appeared to be the most concentrated” and swept up the materials.

Most Recent Poll

The inclusion of a Craddock Avenue extension through environmentally sensitive land in a presentation on the city's Transportation Master Plan at Tuesday's city council meeting raised questions.

The potential extension, that would extend Craddock to Lime Kiln Road and Interstate 35 on a route above Sink Creek, is listed as a conservation corridor in the thoroughfare plan.

There currently are only two routes that connect traffic between Interstate 35 and areas west now – Wonder World Drive and through downtown. The Craddock Avenue extension would divert the traffic that is moving through downtown to other areas, but could present some potential environmental issues.

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, started a regional arterial study in the middle of last year and when it is finished, it could show potential alternatives to the Craddock extension that CAMPO would be interested in funding.

The council is set to vote on the Transportation Master Plan on June 5.

Yes, it would ease traffic downtown sooner.

No, it's an environmentally-sensitive area and the city should wait for CAMPO options.